Family escapes Easter fire in Worcester

Monday

Apr 1, 2013 at 6:00 AMApr 1, 2013 at 8:20 PM

By Paula J. Owen TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Joseph J. Leone said he and his wife, Cathi R. Leone, were watching a basketball game on TV with a friend after their Easter dinner around 7:30 Sunday night when they smelled smoke inside their two-family home at 29 Maplewood Road.

Their children Elizabeth Leone, 26, and Nicholas Leone, 24, live in the downstairs apartment and were also home.

“I smelled smoke and I looked out the window and saw a glow,” Mr. Leone said, standing across the street of his home on the sidewalk while firefighters continued to put out the blaze from the two-alarm fire. “I opened the back door and saw flames. I yelled, 'Everyone out.' ”

He said within a matter of minutes the roof was engulfed.

“It was surreal,” he said.

The fire started somewhere on the back porch near the deck, he said, and moved up and engulfed the attic.

He ran and grabbed his 14-year-old collie and golden retriever mix, Mandy, and carried her down the stairs and out to safety.

“She is old and can't walk well and she is deaf,” he said.

He said his wife wanted to go in and find their elderly cat, too, and look for their daughter's cat. Only their son's cat Nizmo had made it out, they said.

Mr. Leone said his family has owned the home more than 40 years and he has lived there since he was 10.

Melissa Lajeunesse, Mr. Leone's sister, who also grew up in the home, said childhood friend Tracy Wilson called her and told her that her brother's house was on fire.

Mrs. Lajeunesse was at her in-laws' for Easter with her husband, Michael Lajeunesse, and two children, she said, when she got the call.

“I thought they were all still in the house,” she said. “I've never prayed so much in my life.”

For the 10-minute ride from her in-laws' home in West Boylston to the Leone home, she said, she had no idea if her brother's family was OK.

“We're a praying family and we started praying in the car,” she said. “When we got here I started running down the driveway calling their names until someone alerted me they were all out.”

“This home has been in their family for many years,” Ms. Wilson said. “I spent a lot of time in this house with them. It is sad to see this happening. There are so many memories.”

The Gentiles, across the street at 28 Maplewood Road, opened their home to the family and dog Mandy while firefighters worked to put it out.

Marykate Gentile, 24, said she was watching TV with friend Alexis Peralta, 25, from Methuen, in the upstairs den of the home when they saw flames.

Mr. Peralta said he ran outside to tell Ms. Gentile's parents, who were sitting in their car in the driveway, and ran across the street to make sure the Leones were safe and neighbors were aware of the fire.

“The gravity of the situation hits you like a ton of bricks that there is a fire,” he said. “I was worried that everyone wasn't aware.”

He then quickly moved his and Ms. Gentile's cars off the street to make room for firetrucks, he said.

“Everyone was frantic, saying where is the Fire Department,” he said. “You could hear them coming and then they arrived.”

Deputy Fire Chief John F. Sullivan said the light rain, the incline of the streets in the area and the location of the home on a hill presented a challenge.

“When you have a fire in the rear of a building that is set back from the street up on a hill, it is a little more difficult to get lines to the house,” he said.

The fire was moving up the back porch and into the attic when firefighters arrived, he said.

Once they were able to get fire hoses to the home, they knocked it down quickly, he said.

“The whole back of the roof is gone,” he said. “They are not going in there for a while.”

Deputy Chief Sullivan said there were no injuries.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, he said.

Contact Paula Owen at powen@telegram.com. Follow her on Twitter @PaulaOwenTG